In the best year for the freight transportation industry since the Great Recession, logistics managers chalk up efficiencies that drive further U.S. economic growth. However, capacity issues persist, causing shippers to worry about rate hikes as carriers continue to be meticulous in their partnerships.

Does your organization struggle with the integration of information between your internal systems, processes and partner portals? You're not alone! Kapow Software alongside EFT has surveyed over 200 organizations regarding the importance of information access, visibility and discusses some of the major goals for supply chain and logistics organizations.

During this webcast we'll explore how supply chain execution convergence (SCEC) helps break down the barriers resulting from disparate, fragmented technology solutions allowing you to more effectively serve customers, adapt to changing business cycles, and save both money and resources.

Manufacturing: A lesson in US competitiveness

The United States is still the world’s largest manufacturing economy, producing $1.6 trillion of goods each year, or 21 percent of global production. That’s nearly as much as Japan (13 percent) and China (12 percent) combined.

While the products were the focus of the article – everything from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to Allen Edmonds shoes to Tibor fly-fishing reels – I ended up talking to a number of CEOs about why they still make things here, rather than ship their production overseas, and what makes them competitive. Despite the diverse nature of the products being built, there were some commonalities:

High value, or highly-valued, products: Each of the ten companies made a product that was either a high value example of their niche, or was a highly-valued product because it was made to last.

At $120 or so, a Maine hunting boot from L.L. Bean isn’t a lot of money, until you compare it to the price of the winter boot that you buy at a big box retailer. Still, plenty of people are only too happy to shell out the money for a Bean boot.

Why? The boot from Bean, still made in Maine, is built to last. If you do manage to wear it out, well Bean will repair it for you. The company has customers who have gotten decades out of one pair of boots, which makes it highly valued. When quality counts, American manufacturing still shines.

Value-added counts:Mortara Instrument makes ECG equipment in Wisconsin, competing against global manufacturers like GE and Philips. How does it survive in a commodity business? “We’ve had to develop innovative niches where we can be the best at what we do,” says Brian Brenegan, vice president in charge of finance. Examples: While GE and Philips have focused on the devices, Mortara has also developed a software platform that allows researchers to deposit the ECG results they collect during clinical drug trials to the FDA. That’s innovation.

10 Great Companies still manufacturing in the USA

Service counts: Bean wasn’t the only manufacturer I spoke to that prides itself on customer service. Paul Grangaard, the president and CEO of Wisconsin-based shoe maker Allen Edmonds, took real pride in the fact that the average tenure of his customer service representatives is 16 years, taking an average of 45 calls a day. Some of the fitters working in Allen Edmond shoe stores have fitted over 100,000 customers.

Community and family counts: Most of the companies I spoke to were closely identified with a geographic area and family owned. The Juracsik family still makes Tibor fishing reels in Florida; Fred Carl still has a personal stake in how things happen at Viking Range’s plant in Mississippi; and Joe Wells III is adding jobs and manufacturing capacity at Homer Laughlin China because his grandfather and father thought it was important to help the economy in the Ohio Valley. Ditto the Stephen family behind the Illinois-made Weber grills. It’s harder to lay off employees and send production off-shore when you live in the community where your company is headquartered and employ your neighbors. Even publicly-traded Harley-Davidson told me that being made in America is part of the mystique behind owning a Harley.

Lean manufacturing counts: A lot of craftsmanship goes into making a Tibor Reel and there are 212 steps involved in a pair of Allen Edmonds shoes. But several of the mainstream manufacturers I spoke to, from Harley-Davidson to Herman Miller to Viking Ranges to Homer Laughlin China, credited lean manufacturing and continuous investments in their facilities, to maintaining their competitive edge.

At a time when American manufacturing is challenged to keep pace in a global economy, I thought those were important lessons for our industry.

About the Author

Bob TrebilcockEditor at Large

Bob Trebilcock, executive editor, has covered materials handling, technology and supply chain topics for Modern Materials Handling since 1984. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Trebilcock lives in Keene, NH. He can be reached at 603-357-0484 and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Subscribe to Logistics Management magazine

Subscribe today. It's FREE!

Get timely insider information that you can use to better manage yourentire logistics operation.

Recent Entries

While many industry analysts contend that distribution centers near U.S. East Coast ports will see a surge of new business after the Panama Canal expansion, real estate experts say this phenomena is already underway.

A new Government Accountability Office report on the effects of changes to truck driver hours of service rules has sparked a war of words between the American Trucking Associations and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the arm of the Transportation Department that is in charge of making those rules.

The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that U.S. trade with its North America Free Trade Agreement partners Canada and Mexico in May dropped 10.8 percent annually to $92.7 billion, following a 6.8 percent annual decline to $93.3 billion in April.

Rumors of transportation and logistics titan UPS acquiring Chicago-based transportation management services provider Coyote Logistics for $1.8 billion have become a reality, with UPS announcing today that the deal is now official.